Researcher not guilty of stealing lab secrets / Gels were in freezer of UC Davis worker

Rone Tempest, Los Angeles Times

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, August 20, 2002

2002-08-20 04:00:00 PDT Woodland, Yolo County -- In what was originally presented by prosecutors as a high-profile trade secrets case, a jury Monday found a Chinese American researcher at UC Davis not guilty of charges that he embezzled laboratory materials with the intent of starting a business overseas.

The acquittal, celebrated by supporters in the California Asian American community, ended a three-month ordeal for researcher Bin Han, a 13-year employee at the Davis campus. Han's troubles began in May when his research contract was terminated by supervisors at the university ophthalmology labs. On May 17, he was arrested at home by university police and held in jail for 18 days without bail.

"I am very happy," Han said, surrounded by his supporters in the Yolo County courthouse following the verdict. "I love this country. Now, all I want to do is get back to work." Han still has an administrative legal action for wrongful termination pending against the university.

In his defense, Han, married with two school-age children, insisted that he had no plans to keep the university materials -- protein gels used in cornea repairs and transplants -- that police had found in his home freezer. He said a round-trip airplane ticket that police also found in his home was to visit his ailing mother back in the western Chinese city of Xi'an. After his arrest, the case was presented by Yolo County prosecutors as an international scientific espionage plot in which Han was accused of attempting to smuggle proprietary protein gels from the United States to China. Portrayed as a flight threat, Han was ordered to surrender his U.S. passport.

But the trade secret case soon evaporated after it was shown that the protein gels and the machines used to produce them are readily available in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong as well as other locations. Last month, the remaining two charges against Han were reduced from felonies to a single charge of petty theft by embezzlement.

"I do hope it will give them some sense of security," said Lee, a retired sociology professor at California State University at Sacramento. "I have seen so many of our people buckling under to the might of the university. Han is a model of courage, the antithesis of the weak and defenseless Chinese person in America. His courage inspires us all."

The university was steadfast Monday in defending its case against Han.

"Although we are very respectful of the criminal process and the jury's decision," said UC Davis counsel Steve Drown, "we still feel the university had a reasonable basis for the issuance of a search warrant. We take these matters very seriously. We feel the university police acted appropriately."